The only thing wrong with the do not call list is two exemption. Political and charital. The charities call all the time and the political really click in about 3 months before an election. One trick I have is to never pickup the phone until after the 3rd ring.

After a little conversation to verify that the boiler-room caller is trying to reach *this* person, at *this* number, you cover the phone just enough to muffle, but not enough so the caller can't actually hear what you're saying, and you shout to an imaginary co-worker, "Hey, Charlie, alert the chief .... we've got a guy on the line trying to contact Al-Qaida"

Yep, they're getting sneakier, got an e-mail a couple days ago from the "FBI", official seal & all. It said that a Nigerian lawyer was trying to find me, because a long lost great uncle had died and left me (his sole surviving relative) his estate valued at roughly $750,000.00. The problems with this are: 1) nobody in my family has ever been to, or came from, Nigeria. 2) Both of my parents, 2 brothers and a sister are still alive & kicking, no way i could be ANYONE'S sloe surviving heir Sad too, because I could use that cash for my dream layout.

Alan

THE FIRST TIME THAT I GOT AN E-MAIL THAT SAID THAT IT WAS FROM THE FBI, I CALLED THE FBI AND THEY ADVISED ME THAT THEY NEVER CONTACT PEOPLE BY E-MAIL! OTHER AGENCIES OF THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT DO NOT DO SO EITHER. THEY USE REGULAR MAIL. An easy way to tell whether an e-mail is coming from a person in the federal government is that the e-mail address has to end in ".gov". If it doesn't, it's a fake.

Assume that any e-mail correspondence coming from overseas is a fake. Anything that tells you that you have "won" anything is a fake. If you have any doubt, do a google search for the author and "scam" or "complaint" and you will usually find out that it's a scam letter. You aren't the first. The same scam has always been tried before on someone else before they try it on you.

E-mails from United Nations agencies and overseas barristers are also fakes. Likewise for e-mails from foreign subsidiaries of well-known companies that do business in the United States.

Anytime that someone asks you for your bank account number, social security number, date of birth, etc....assume that it is a scam. Reputable businesses do not ask you for this kind of information in e-mails. The way that the scammers work is to tell you that they need this information in order to transfer the funds into your bank account. Once they have this information, they can either go after what's in your bank account or go on an identity theft rampage in your name...or both!

Remember...if it seems too good to be true...IT IS TOO GOOD TO BE TRUE! I hope that this information helps you to avoid these crooks.

The scammers out there are very good at their craft! They even make the false website look like the real thing, but there is one too many or one too few letters in the false website or email address, so it goes to the wrong place!Another one that is somewhat new is, to send emails about cashing checks or money orders from somebody and forwarding the money! THE CHECKS or MONEY ORDERS ARE FAKE!!!!! Take it to the place it is suposed to be wrote on, like the bank it is written from or the US Post Office if a money order.

The oldest scam that still works is the bank manager scam checking the tellers for accuracy!! People over 65 fall for this one quite often and even more often than most people think.Some of the con artist are the smoothest talkers you will ever meet!! They could sell freezers to polar bears at the North Pole, that's how smooth they are.

There are actually three things wrong with the Do Not Call list: way too many boiler rooms tell their callers to ignore it and call anyway. The only thing that will make it truly effective is the Feds vigorously enforcing violations (meaning we have to do our part by reporting them) or if the phone companies are forced to render our numbers unreachable from telephone marketers.